the heat of the day, and the excitement of her alarm, and expected only
to hear some tale of household matters. But to her surprise Margery
began, "There've been a squaw here to-day, and, you know, they don't
come much about Cacouna, thank goodness, nasty brown things--but this
one, she came with her mats and rubbish, in a canoe, to be sure. Your
ma, she was out, and I caught sight of something coming up the bank
towards the house, so I went out on the verandah to see. As soon as she
saw me, she held up her mats and says, 'Buy, buy, buy,' making believe
she knew no more English than that, but I told her we wanted none of her
goods, and then she said, 'Missis at home?' I told her no, and she said
'Where?' as impudent as possible. I told her that was none of her
business, and she'd better go; but instead of that, she took hold of my
gown, and she said "Lucia" as plain as possible. I do declare, Miss
Lucia, I did not know what to make of her, for how she should come to
know your name was queer anyhow; but I just said, Mrs. Costello is not
in, nor Miss Lucia neither, so you'd better be off; and she nodded her
head a lot of times, and seemed as if she were considering whether to go
or not. I asked her what she wanted, but she would not tell me, and
after awhile she went off again in her canoe as fast as if she was going
express."

Lucia was thoroughly startled by this story. Mr. Strafford's letter came
to her mind, and connected itself with the singular look and manner of
the squaw, at the farm. This could not certainly be the mysterious "C."
of the letter, for Mr. Strafford said "_he_ is in the neighbourhood,"
but it might be Mary Wanita, who had apparently given the first friendly
warning, and might possibly have come to Cacouna for the purpose of
giving a second, and more urgent one.

"Where was mamma?" she asked.